dilbert

Scott Adams is well known as the creator of ‘Dilbert’

Does passion causes success or success causes passion ?

Pause a while before you answer ?

If you were like anything like me, you would have possibly answered that passion causes success and this book sets out to state that why that could be a wrong inference.

According to Scott, “Success caused passion more than passion caused success” and he manages to

This book is one of those books I managed to read within couple of days of starting it. Scott’s style is very engaging, self-deprecating and as direct as ‘Dilbert’. It goes out to elucidate that why so many of my assumptions were benignly wrong and he manages to explain why as well with necessary evidences

Case in my point is when someone in my family commented that they liked my writing. I felt great , but just as a test I followed up with the question of ‘What did you like in it’ and kind of quizzed them on the specifics, I did not receive any response.

This kind of illustrates his view stated below

“One of the best ways to detect the x factor is to watch what customers do about your idea or product, not what they say. People tend to say what they think you want to hear or what they think will cause the least pain . What people do is far more honest. For example, with comics, a good test of potential is whether people stick the comic to the refrigerator, tweet it, email it to friends, put it on a blog page, or do anything else active.”

The message that got nailed into me was ‘What customer do about your idea or product’.

Compare these two sentences

“I shall lose 10 kgs weight in 6 months” (goal) or “I shall exercise daily without  fail” (system)

Which of the two you would prefer “goal” or “system” ?

I had preferred the “goal”!

According to Scott,  in life, people having goals are losers and people having systems are winners

Scott talks a lot about the importance of managing personal energy , having flexible schedules, importance of sleep, dealing with failures, why will power is not sustainable and gives a light framework for going ahead with evidence based reasoning rather than pure gut.

Scott has many interesting quips and quotes. The one I liked most was

Always remember that failure is your friend. It is the raw material of success. Invite it in. Learn  from it. And don’t let it leave until you pick its pocket. That’s a system. The End”

 This book helped me to take a re-look at some of my long time assumptions. Hope it does the same for you as well.

 Stay Tuned.

Enjoy Maadi (Have Fun)

Zunder